Anyone who knows me knows how borderline obsessed I am with music. Since 2001, I've been in more bands than I care to list. I've played hundreds of shows, seen a good chunk of the country, and managed to concuss myself several times over during the course of it. Since 2004, I've worked at two different record stores, and ascended the ranks to head music buyer at one of them. I bring my iPod everywhere, and normally it can be heard two city blocks away[it's a good thing no one else is home tonight]. You get the point. Music is one of the main driving forces in my life. So expect to hear a lot about it.
With that in mind, I'm sure you can understand what an extreme understatement it is when I say that I'm disgusted with a ton of shit in the music scene today. It's nothing against the bands; there are a ton of superb ladies & gentlemen making excellent sounds out there today. No, my problem mainly lies with the reasons WHY they're doing this. Music is supposed to be about passion, about reaching out and stirring some sort of emotion inside you. It can bring you to the lowest depths of your soul in one second, and in the next, send you soaring to heights of euphoria previously unimaginable. It leaves an indelible mark in your memory, to the point where a few notes from a song can bring tears, or transport you back to a night fifteen years ago and a time you never thought you'd revisit. But to me, above all, music is supposed to be about bringing people together - whether you're one of fifteen thousand at Madison Square Garden, or you're sitting in the backyard with five friends and an acoustic guitar, singing along to the songs you all know the words to. Music is meant to be a uniter, not a divider, which is why the way so many people in the music business act confuses the fuck out of me.
Once upon a time, you formed a band, recorded a demo, got signed, and leapt up to the lap of luxury. Bands lived to get signed above all else; Christ, Brendan Fraser made a movie about three kids doing anything up to and including felony assault to get a contract. Getting signed was the gateway to bigger, better things. Doors that had previously been locked magically swung open. Three months ago, you were bringing back beer cans for the deposits just to get a few bucks together to record; now, you had 300 hours with Steve Albini at a warehouse in Chicago. What's that? Need more? Shit, then make it 400! T-shirts, movie soundtracks, huge national tours, radio airplay, access to the finest narcotics and groupies - these things were just a start. It was the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
But you know what happened? The '90s ended. Kurt Cobain had blown his brains out, boy bands had faded from social relevancy, and this little thing called the Internet was picking up steam[thanks, Al Gore!] Computer technology became more powerful, more omnipresent, and above all else, more affordable. Thanks to programs such as ProTools, anyone who wanted could play record producer. A million Steve Albinis emerged in rec rooms and basements across the country. A veritable army of teeny Albinis. Anyone could make a record with next to no money.
This should have sparked a revolution in the music industry, right?
Yet somehow, so many people didn't get the memo. I know I'm preaching to the choir on this one, but it still amazes me how so many people see getting signed as the ultimate goal of being in a band - above the experience, above the passion, and above the flat-out love of making music. The best part is their apparent ignorance to the fact that so many people before them have had the same goal and ultimately failed miserably - or even worse, they DID make it, only to be chewed up and spat out by a society that operates on a three word credo: MORE, NEW, NOW. What's the point of busting your ass selling tickets for a club owner who's just going to drop you for another band that can sell more? Why play a showcase for a bunch of label executives who are judging you the same way plantation owners judged slaves 150 years ago? And most importantly, why do so many people continue to give into this bullshit corporate wood chipper?
Seriously, in what other industry does the producer of a product[and let's not kid ourselves, in this game music is a product] give up all of their rights just to have an over-arching corporation play middleman in selling their product to the consumer? Let's say someone was in the business of making t-shirts for a living. Why would they sell the rights to their product to Target, who would not only dictate how much the producer received for each shirt, but how much the consumer paid for each shirt? Why wouldn't they just find a way to market their t-shirts directly to the consumer, so they can set the price? 10 years ago, this was a near impossibility - most people didn't have the funds to open up a brick-and-mortar store. But today, there's an alternative. And this works for musicians as well as it does for any other manufacturers.
Why let the label dictate what music you make, when you make it, and how much people pay for t? They just see you as another worker making THEIR product, so they can stick a "for fans of" sticker on it and hopefully turn a quick profit. The sad truth these days is that the supposed "indies" are just as bad as the majors now. Fat Mike wants your 15 bucks just as bad as Clive Davis does. And you know Tony Brummel will just as soon put out another "Best of Atreyu" CD as Apple Music will release the 982nd version of "Yellow Submarine". Think realistically for a minute. They want your money just as much, if not more so, than the majors do. They don't have the never-ending pockets of a corporate monolith behind them. In no means is this an indictment of the indies; it's just the plain truth. Sometimes indies seem to slide by on this "non-corporate" free pass, but that has to stop. They are a business, just like Columbia is a business, just like Warner Bros. is a business.
What can you do, if everything is a business whose only goal is to use you like an underage prom date? Take back the power. Subvert the system. Find one of the teeny Albinis[god, I love that phrase] to help you put out a record. Pick up a spindle of CD-Rs and some jewel cases. Go to Kinko's and photocopy the liner notes. Do it yourself! It's not as hard as you think. It's amazing how many tools are out there to get things done your way, if you just look for them.
By taking a stand and taking back the means of production, the balance of power shifts, and one more bullet pierces the armor of the faceless few who see music as nothing more than profits and losses. Maybe we'll never be able to full get away from that; there's always at least one person who will take the opportunity for more profit over the ethical choice. But, at least you can go to sleep at night knowing you stood up for your principles and did things your own way, without compromise.
And that has to count for something.
-d
